Athletics Action

3/10/2017

Jr. Boys’ Basketball

The Jr. Boys’ Basketball team travelled down to Villanova College to take part in the league's final four playoffs as the number 2 seed. The boys were heading into the weekend event with confidence as they had won 6 of their last 7 games after a disappointing 1-4 start to the season.

LCS took on St. John’s Kilmarnock in the semi-final. They split their regular season battles and this game proved to be another close match. The LCS boys started the game off strong by maintaining a wall-like press coupled with steady defence. This counteracted their offensive struggles and led wire to wire for a 29-22 victory. Eliud Villareal led the team with 9 points and Geoff Yuen with 7. Keegan Sayles provided excellent ball handling all game and also had 4 points.

After 45 minutes of rest, the boys played the regular season champions, Toronto Montessori School, in the final. They only had one loss all season and were the favourites going into the game. This was a defensive battle all game as both teams were stingy in allowing offensive baskets. TMS came out to an early lead and were up 8-6 at the quarter. TMS began to heat up offensively and increased their lead in the second quarter, while LCS had challenges finding the bottom of the net. TMS led 18-11 at the half. The teams traded points in the third quarter for a 23-16 lead for TMS heading into the 4th. After falling behind 25-16, the LCS boys reached deep and started to play with more grit and intensity. The heroes of the day were Geoff Yuen and Eliud Villarreal again, as they both drained a pair of 4th quarter 3’s. After steadily climbing back, the LCS boys tied it for the first time in the game with 1:11 remaining. From this point, TMS came down and drained a three. Not deterred, LCS came back with a three of their own provided by Eluid, and the LCS bench almost jumped through the roof of the gym. After a steady defensive stand, including a timely steal by Mariano Garcia, Arsh Momi was fouled and went to the line. He made one of two free throws to put LCS up by one and the boys held TMS off the sheet for the final 18 seconds to claim the title. Eliud led the way with a 13 point effort while Geoff Yuen chipped in with 10. Keegan was again solid in his quarterbacking the offence and had 4 points as well.

It was a great way to end a season that saw the boys demonstrate excellent improvement in their teamwork and skills throughout the year!

1st Nordic Skiing

Last week, the 1st Nordic Skiing team travelled 8 hours north of Lakefield all the way to Timmins, Ontario for the OFSAA Championships. For some skiers, it was their first year racing so they didn't know what to expect, while for some of our veterans it was their third time at this big event. Rachel Harding, in fact, was returning to Timmins after having competed there for OFSAA in Grade 9. We had a blast in Timmins skiing their beautiful course, eating delicious sushi (surprising for Timmins, I know!) and taking advantage of the hotel pool.

The skiers were fortunate to have fairly mild temperatures for the individual races on Tuesday, and everyone was proud of their results. It was a fairly challenging race course with some big climbs, but our skiers were tough and finished the races with big smiles. Big shout out to Anna Harris who had a very successful ski, coming 22nd out of 150 junior girls! Another special mention needs to go to Zack Masciangelo who came all the way to Timmins for his individual race and then flew home early to make it to his 1st Boys’ Hockey game – that is true dedication to sport.

On Wednesday, only our Senior Girls team competed in the relays. They had to face more frigid and typical Timmins weather with temperatures around -15ºC. With support from each other and the rest of their team, the girls made it through the race but were certainly happy when it was all over.

Bright and early on Saturday morning, the Jr. Girls' Volleyball team hopped on a bus and travelled to St. John's-Kilmarnock School for the final 4. The team knew that they would have their work cut out for them as they would be facing SJK in the semi-finals. SJK was undefeated and in first place after regular season play.

The girls battled hard and remained positive throughout the match, but were unable to overcome the strength of the SJK team, losing 25-13, 25-12, and 25-19. SJK would go on to win the championship.

The team moved on to the consolation finals and faced Hawthorn School for Girls. The team started out strongly and were able to dominate Hawthorn in the first two games, winning 25-21, 25-8, but then lost their focus briefly and Hawthorn won the third game 25-10. LCS knew that they were capable of battling back and that they did, wining the fourth and final game 25-17 to secure third place overall out of the 10 teams in the league. The coaches are incredibly proud of how far this team has come since the beginning of the season. The improvement in their individual skills as well as the level of teamwork was impressive and the girls should be pleased with how they finished the season. Congratulations!